Dragon Emperor
by JuniperGentle
Summary: When Ryuga discovers that what he thought he wanted wasn't worth the price he had to pay to get it, what is his next move? Set just after the final battle of Battle Bladers. Written to honour the Chinese Year of the Dragon.


A Metal Fusion Beyblade story in honour of the Year of the Dragon, Ryuga, and my deep and abiding love for anything dragony.

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><p><em>Sleeping on a dragon's hoard, with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.<em>

"The Adventures of Eustace", _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_, C.S. Lewis

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><p><strong>Dragon Emperor<strong>

In the ruin and downfall of everything, it wasn't as if anyone was going to notice him. No, they were all too busy congratulating Hagane on finally managing to beat the unbeatable.

Hah. What did they know?

"_Not then, not now, and not from here on in."_ That was what he had said to Gingka the first time they had battled. Well, that had been proved wrong; just not for the reasons that Gingka and his friends thought.

He had held back. He hadn't used everything he had. At the instant when he had needed to make the choice, he had hesitated, and Gingka had destroyed him.

No. Gingka had... Gingka had _called him_ _back._

"_Take it back! Take back your blader's spirit!"_

The cracked fusion wheel of L-Drago bit into his already scratched hand as he tightened his grip. He could have won that battle against Gingka so easily, if he had just surrendered to the triplicate Dragon completely and let L-Drago control his body. But when it came down to it, when L-Drago reared up before him, shining silver and purple in the dim light before dawn, in the space that only he could see, he had refused its offer.

Because no matter how strong L-Drago was, Ryuga was still first and foremost a blader, and that was the most important thing in the world to him.

The battle against the one they called Kyouya, that had been the first time he'd realised something was strange about his bey. L-Drago had resisted his commands – had actually _disobeyed him - _but before Ryuga had a chance to wonder whether the triple dragon just wanted to finish everything off quickly, or whether this was a portent of things to come, L-Drago had swallowed him whole.

Ryuga knew who he was. Up until that day, he had fought according to his own principles and his own blader spirit. Yes, he'd been vicious, even savage, and that was who he was. He'd destroyed every opponent he came across, and that was who he was. He'd stolen their power because he wanted it, and that was who he was. It wasn't _nice,_ but it was him.

He was, in his own way, already a dragon. Greedy for power, ambitious, cruel, powerful; that was him. But when L-Drago soaked through every fibre of his body, he knew that he was not half as cruel as the true Dragon, L-Drago. He could have surrendered to that side of him, become a dragon completely, the way he had at the beginning of his battle with Gingka. He would have won if he had, he knew that.

But then something inside his head had started throwing a temper tantrum. It didn't want to win this way any more. Ryuga was leaning on the power of L-Drago, letting it fight his battles for him, rather than using it himself to fight his own battles. It wasn't the right way. It wasn't the _blader's_ way.

So as the silver-blue light of the Galaxy Nova had struck the Dragon Emperor Soaring Destruction, he had taken it back, taken back his own blader spirit. It meant he had lost, but it had meant he was still Ryuga.

But he had to admit, it had been a close call. Far too close for comfort. For an instant, he had wanted... yes, he'd wanted to stay that way. To become the Dragon, to rule and destroy and take and own and _be. _If he had accepted the dominating presence of his three dragons, letting them consume him completely... the power was overwhelming. Even beautiful.

His jaw ached, and he absently rubbed at it. He could still taste the blood where the extra teeth had suddenly pushed through and sharpened into fangs. L-Drago had torn him apart and remoulded him from the inside out, strengthening bones, lengthening jaws and fangs and claws, setting fire to his blood.

It had hurt like hell. But at the time, he'd wanted it. He wanted to win more than anything.

That was before he realised that if winning the battle meant he had to sacrifice who he was, it wasn't a battle he wanted to fight.

L-Drago was a dragon. Dragons couldn't beyblade. Dragons had no blader spirit; that was why they fed on the spirit of others. All they had was raw power, enough to conquer the world and turn it to their way. Ryuga wanted that power – he always had. L-Drago promised power, promised a world that went the way he wanted, promised everything that his ambition, his greed, his pride demanded.

L-Drago had lied.

Oh yes, Ryuga could get it. He could have had it all. But the cost would have been Ryuga himself.

And Ryuga's own pride had rebelled against that. _He _was the master. No puny dragon was going to control him.

The sounds of Gingka and his friends chattering died away behind him. They didn't matter any more. They had only served two purposes – to make Ryuga more powerful, and then to make sure he was not lost in that power.

"_Beys always tell the truth."_ Wasn't that what Gingka was always telling his friends? Well, if L-Drago had been acting truthfully before, Ryuga had been too blind to notice. And he had paid for his ignorance.

Yes, thought Ryuga. Dragons were cruel and vicious, and terrifying too. They were greedy, proud and ambitious. But they could also be noble and strong, wise and powerful, lordly and majestic.

He would become the Dragon, the true Dragon, and then nothing would stand before him.

It was time to begin again.

And this time he, Ryuga, would become the Dragon Emperor.

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><p>AN - Hmm, not 100% certain where this came from, except the single shot of Ryuga picking up the shattered L-Drago and walking off with it at the end of Metal Fusion without ever looking back.


End file.
